M A I N   N E W S

Give proof of assets: Dhumal
Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 4
Mr P.K. Dhumal, Chief Minister, today challenged Congress leaders to provide documentary evidence to prove that the assets, a list of which was released to the Press yesterday, were owned by him. He said he would initiate criminal proceedings against them if they failed to prove the allegations within two days.

Refuting the charge that he had accumulated assets in Jalandhar, he released a copy of the details of his assets submitted by him to the Speaker, as on March 31, 1998. He said such allegations only reflected the frustration of the Congress leaders, who had been unnerved by the overwhelming support which the BJP was getting from the people.

He said some of the properties mentioned in the list were a surprise for him as neither he nor his sons or relatives owned these.

He said he did not own houses in New Delhi or a restaurant at Mcleodganj (Dharamsala), as mentioned by Mr Anand Sharma.

Mr Dhumal said it seemed that the Congress leaders had been misinformed. The Proxima Tools, Jalandhar, the market value which had been mentioned as Rs 10 crore, had been established about a decade back, when he was not the Chief Minister. The Sant Valves and the Sant Bras was one company and had been set up five decades back in partnership and converted into a private limited company in the nineties, he said, that had no financial stake in the Delhi Public School branch in Jalandhar. He said he owned a small house in Jalandhar.

As per the details of properties submitted on April 5, 1998, Mr Dhumal had a 50 per cent share in an ancestral house and 60 kanal at Sujanpur, Sangroh and Bohan villages of Bhoranj tehsil and house number 309, 6-A, central town, Jalandhar, the value of which in the eighties was Rs 85,000.

The movable assets included a 4 per cent share in Proxima Steel Forge, a 3.12 per cent share in Sant Valves, national ‘saving certificates worth Rs 37,890 along with interest, deposits as per income tax returns of Rs 95,617, FDR with the State Bank of India of Rs 65,327, Rs 32,232 in savings account number 126047, shares in Punjab Alkalies Chemicals of Rs 3000 and in ANS Agros of Rs 10,000, deposits with HVF of Rs 30,000 and a bank balance of Rs 3,649.

Meanwhile, Mr Baldev Sharma, spokesperson of the state BJP, said the party was trying to ensure that its candidates declared their assets before the elections. He said the party members in the dissolved House had submitted the details of their assets to the Speaker last year.

He said the BJP wanted to bring in a legislation to make it mandatory for all party legislators to declare their assets, but the Congress had got it referred to a select committee.

Cong men seek change of two candidates
Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 4
Even as the Congress high-command has asked aspirants who could not get tickets to go back and work for party candidates in their assembly seats, disgruntled Congressmen continue to throng AICC office here demanding change in party candidates.

Aspirants from Kutlehar and Kinnaur today met Congress general secretary Mohsina Kidwai, seeking a change in the party candidates.

Four ticket aspirants from Kutlehar, in a joint representation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, sought a review of the party’s decision to field Ms Saroj Thakur from the seat.

In their joint representation, former Deputy Speaker Ramnath Sharma, Mr Ishwar Dukhia, Mr Deshraj Gautam and Mr Ravinder Fauji claimed that Ms Thakur had “no political roots” in the area. They said that Ms Thakur was not based in the constituency.

The high-command, which had not declared candidate for the Kutlehar seat while declaring the other 67 names on Saturday, later gave the go-ahead to allot party symbol to Ms Saroj Thakur.

Sources said that Ms Thakur was a “compromise choice” between senior state leaders Virbhadra Singh and Vidya Stokes after it was decided not to repeat Mr Mahanderpal who had lost the last election by three votes.

Maintaining that “wrong choice” on the Kutlehar seat could also affect Congress prospects in the neighbouring seats, some of the ticket aspirants are emphaising that the seat has been mostly held by a person from the Brahmin community.

While Mr Ram Nath Sharma has won the seat earlier, Mr Dukhia is a former employee leader. Congressmen from Kinnaur, who are pleading the case of Ms Sushila Negi, wife of late Dev Raj Negi, say that no woman had been given ticket by the party in the seats under the Mandi parliamentary constituency, while the party had given tickets to women in seats under all other three parliamentary constituencies.

Two women have been fielded by the Congress in Assembly seats falling in the Kangra parliamentary seat, five in Hamirpur and three in Shimla.

The Congress leaders from Kinnaur, who apparently are from the group opposed to party candidate Jagat Singh Negi, contend that the party candidate had slim chances of winning.

The aspirants’ hopes have been bolstered by reported remarks of Congress spokesman Anand Sharma that the party may change candidates on a few seats if there were genuine reasons.